The Rooster, with grilled chicken, crisped-up salami and pepperoni, melted mozzarella, set on a bed of lettuce and tomato is one of the most popular items on the menu at the BillyNeck Food Station in Battlefield.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

The BillyNeck Food Station opened on March 2, serving sliders, melts and hefty sandwiches from a food truck located in a gravel lot on the northwest corner of the highway and Weaver Road.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

The BillyNeck Food Station opened on March 2, serving sliders, melts and hefty sandwiches from a food truck located in a gravel lot on the northwest corner of the highway and Weaver Road.
Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Brother-sister duo Mitch and Shelly Cox opened BillyNeck Food Station on March 2, serving sliders, melts and hefty sandwiches from a food truck that they like to call a "unique, hybrid, fractional kitchen."

They've taken up a perch in Battlefield, "catering to suburbia" from a gravel lot next to Battlecreek Properties, 4933 S. State Highway FF. It's on the northwest corner of the highway and Weaver Road.

"I figured the path of least resistance was to be what's closest" to the residential neighborhoods nearby, Mitch Cox said.

He concedes there are a few fast-food places in the area, but nobody in Battlefield is doing what BillyNeck does.

Other than temporary snow-cone or hot dog vendors at Battlefield's Fourth of July celebrations, the Cox siblings believe theirs is the first-ever food truck to open in Battlefield.

Their spot contrasts with SGF Mobile Food Park or other central Springfield food truck locations; it looks out east over a wide-open field toward Wilson's Creek Intermediate School.

A lot of their new customers have not visited a food truck before, they said; all the more reason why the Coxes work their word-of-mouth game.

Mitch lives in nearby Laurel Farms, and said for a month prior to opening day, he had the food truck parked in a neighbor's driveway.

Which got people talking.

Then they parked the truck on their chosen street corner for a couple of weeks before they sold any sandwiches.

Which got more people talking.

In an interview Monday, Mitch and Shelly said that they staff BillyNeck themselves, with a little help from family members.

Mitch does the cooking; Shelly works the service counter, hand-drawing a smiley-face on every boxed order.

He's a veteran of restaurants including Steak & Ale and Culver's; she had processed insurance claims for Mercy and was "ready to get out of the cubicle" after 17 years.

BillyNeck serves sliders on sweet buns with sandwich fillings like sweet chili shrimp, turkey/barbecue/cheddar or ham honey-Swiss. They're $7 with an order of fries and can be served on a tortilla for those who "want less bread."

The truck also makes a sandwich called the Rooster, $8.50, with grilled chicken, crisped-up salami and pepperoni, melted mozzarella, set on a bed of lettuce and tomato "with a shot of red-wine vinegar."

BillyNeck also sells sandwiches that riff on East Coast cheesesteaks ($9), and they have eight kinds of "big melts" ($7.50) on their hand-written markerboard menu.

Where does the name come from?

It began as Mitch's idea: a line of T-shirts for his children.

"I didn't know if I was a hillbilly, or a redneck," he explained.

They're open from 11 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; then 4 p.m. until closing time for dinner service, which often runs after 8 p.m.

Saturdays, they operate 3 p.m.-close; Sundays, noon-close.

For now, they have no phone number, but plan to offer call-in drive-up service in the future, along with picnic tables and benches for customers.

They said they post menu specials and changing hours of operation on their newly posted Facebook page.